Mum of dead children breaks down at ex-husband's murder trial (Victoria, Australia)

We previously posted on this case last December:

http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2009/12/dad-who-drowned-3-sons-gets-to-spend.html

Yes, so amazing that Daddy survived this crash after "blacking out" and how only the three children were trapped in the car that sunk to the bottom of the dam. Yet another indictment of "shared custody," especially with psycho nutcases. This is Daddy's second trial.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/ex-wife-cindy-gambino-breaks-down-at-robert-farquharson-trial/story-e6frg6nf-1225863688017

Ex-wife Cindy Gambino breaks down at Robert Farquharson trial
Lauren Wilson From: The Australian May 07, 2010 2:39PM

A MOTHER has given a jury a harrowing account of the last moments she spent with her three sons before her estranged husband drove them into a dam in what prosecutors allege was a deliberate act of murder.

Robert Farquharson's three young sons Jai, 10, Tyler, 7, and Bailey, 2 drowned after being trapped inside their father's Holden Commodore when it sank to the bottom of a dam on the outskirts of Geelong on Fathers' Day in 2005.

Mr Farquharson has pleaded not guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to the murders of his children, maintaining he had a coughing fit and blacked out at the wheel.

The boys' mother Cindy Gambino chocked back tears in the witness box today as she described saying goodbye to her sons' for the last time.

Ms Gambino told the court that she had driven the boys over to Mr Farquharson's house with a framed photograph and saucepans for him as a Fathers' Day gift.

She said that after spending ten minutes at her former husband's home she asked her boys if they wanted to have dinner with their father and arranged for him to drive them home.

"The biggest regret of my life is asking that question," she sobbed.

"Bailey's last words to me where "cuddle mum" and I cuddled him and I left and that was the last time I saw them alive."

Ms Gambino said Mr Farquharson had a "love/hate" relationship with his children and "resented me something badly" after the pair separated in 2004.

She told the court she never denied Mr Farquharson access to the children, but "the worst part about it was that he never really asked to have them than often, and the kids never asked if they could see dad."

The court heard that Mr Farquharson would often complain about child maintenance payments and his difficult financial position.

Breaking into tears, Ms Gambino said the payments were set to slightly increase before the deaths of the children, but "it ended up not being increased because the children died and he didn't have to pay maintenance anymore."

She described the conduct of Mr Farquharson the night of their children's death as being, "like he lost his pushbike".

The trial continues.